New troll scam: Pay us $495 or face felony charges and jail time

In reality, private organizations in the US can't charge anyone with felonies.

An organization calling itself the "Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency" (ICLEA) recently sent out a batch of copyright infringement notices. One letter reproduced online states that "if this matter is not settled by Friday, March 1, 2013 then you may face serious potential criminal and/or civil charges filed against you. If you are arrested for felony criminal copyright infringement you will be fingerprinted, photographed, and held in jail until you are arraigned in court." Recipients have been asked to pay various amounts, such as $395 or $495.

Needless to say, this is a scam. Under US law, only the government can indict defendants or throw them in jail. And the scammers seem to have realized that they made a big mistake, as their website now states, "Effective immediately, the Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency has ceased operations. Please disregard any notices you received from us, and please do not send us any payments."

But as a screenshot captured by Fight Copyright Trolls shows, that's not what the website used to say. Previously, the ICLEA claimed to be "an international organization that helps to enforce copyright laws on the Internet worldwide by informing potential copyright law violators regarding the serious criminal and/or civil liability they may face, and providing them with an opportunity to help them comply with copyright laws."

Posts about the ICLEA's notices began appearing on the Internet around February 19. The notices reportedly arrived by certified mail. Interestingly, at least one poster acknowledged that she had in fact downloaded the music in question, suggesting that the scammers had collected real file-sharing data and connected it to peoples' real names and physical addresses. It's unclear how they managed to obtain the information.

Presumably, whoever was behind the scam is now trying to minimize the fallout and cover their tracks. One Fight Copyright Trolls commenter reports that he got an e-mail from the scammers on Friday morning telling him to disregard past notices and promising not to bother him again. The culprit used anonymizing services to preserve his anonymity, but if law enforcement takes an interest in the case they may be able to compel the relevant intermediaries, including the domain registrar and Web host, to divulge information that could lead back to the source.

I would think that this might fall under extortion laws, especially if this person/people aren't the legal owners of the content, and given that they were threatening a felony. The hilarious thing is that as quickly as they seem to have closed up shop, they probably ended up losing money. Paying for a rental office/mail box and sending out a bunch of certified letters couldn't have been cheap.

IANAL, but based on the quotes included in this article I suspect those responsible could not be charged with criminal fraud or misrepresentation, or at least not convicted. Stating that the recipient may face criminal or civil legal action may imply that the ICLEA can file criminal charges, but it doesn't actually say so. And the statement of what might happen if the recipient is arrested on criminal charges is a simple statement of fact which appears to be true on its face, regardless of its inclusion here for the obvious intimidation effect.

Yes, this is very nit-picky and the wording quoted is weaselly in the extreme, but frankly that's quite often the norm in our legal system, at least in my admittedly limited experience.

if this matter is not settled by Friday, March 1, 2013 then you may face serious potential criminal and/or civil charges filed against you. If you are arrested for felony criminal copyright infringement you will be fingerprinted, photographed, and held in jail until you are arraigned in court.

Technically, there doesn't seem to be a lie here. In particular, it doesn't say anywhere that they will cause you to be arrested for felony criminal copyright infringement.

"if this matter is not settled by Friday, March 1, 2013 then you may face serious potential criminal and/or civil charges filed against you. If you are arrested for felony criminal copyright infringement you will be fingerprinted, photographed, and held in jail until you are arraigned in court."

clearly wrong? The MPAA and the RIAA urged the US to go after Kim Dotcom for the same thing. Seems like if you have the money we most certainly will charge your enemies with felonies. Another example: The guy Cisco coerced the US to arrest while he was in Canadian court.

Remember kiddies - at least in the States - if it did NOT come to you via registered mail (i.e. snail mail that requires your signature) - then it is NOT official and has zero risk.

Discard the notice (as mentioned in this article - it's most likely a scam) and forget about it.

If you ever receive an enquiry about the notice, or asked why you didn't respond - answer "what notice" and then forget about it.

The burden of proof, to "prove" that you were officially notified is on the sender, not you, so once again, if you didn't sign a US POSTAL SERVICE receipt of letter/package - you have NOTHING to worry about it.

There, I just saved a bunch of people a few hundred dollars in unnecessary legal fees and/or sleepless nights.

LOL, Godaddy's private registration rolls over at the slightest provocation. These people are royally boned. Serves them right for being patrons of a chronically misogynistic company that trumpets their sexism in every commercial they make.

LOL, Godaddy's private registration rolls over at the slightest provocation. These people are royally boned. Serves them right for being patrons of a chronically misogynistic company that trumpets their sexism in every commercial they make.

I wonder if Godaddy will "protect" them from lawyers and the government going after them.

IANAL, but based on the quotes included in this article I suspect those responsible could not be charged with criminal fraud or misrepresentation, or at least not convicted. Stating that the recipient may face criminal or civil legal action may imply that the ICLEA can file criminal charges, but it doesn't actually say so. And the statement of what might happen if the recipient is arrested on criminal charges is a simple statement of fact which appears to be true on its face, regardless of its inclusion here for the obvious intimidation effect.

Yes, this is very nit-picky and the wording quoted is weaselly in the extreme, but frankly that's quite often the norm in our legal system, at least in my admittedly limited experience.

Unless of course you consider they were trying to collect monies for copyright infringment without the authorization of the actual copyright holders.

I fully expect to see the FBI raiding these morons long before Steele/Pretenda get what is coming to them.

i couldn't believe that this was real when the letter had said on the outside, of the envelope that "urgent legal documents enclosed regarding potential pending lawsuit against you".... and the whole context of the letter was nothing but extortion and black-male... lmao... fools

Timothy B. Lee / Timothy covers tech policy for Ars, with a particular focus on patent and copyright law, privacy, free speech, and open government. His writing has appeared in Slate, Reason, Wired, and the New York Times.